Rules May Change For Thriving Redfish

OUTDOORS

After more than a decade of being protected by some of the state's toughest fishing rules, red drum are thriving.

For a species almost fished to extinction, the turnaround is dramatic.

More and more juvenile redfish are surviving on Florida's Atlantic Coast, reaching adulthood at age 4, and moving offshore to join breeding populations.

Estimates of the survival rates of these fish run as high as 85 percent in some years.

Even on the state's west coast, where anglers kill almost five times as many redfish, the survival rates have been as high as nearly 59 percent.

In 1984, state east coast anglers kept 549,000 redfish and released only 47,000 fish. The west coast was worse, with 1.3 million fish kept and 700,000 released.

By 1997, anglers were releasing 545,000 redfish on the east coast, keeping only 73,000. On the west coast, they released 1.4 million fish, but still kept 319,000.

Now there's a push by some anglers to see the restrictions they've been under for years eased.

They'd like the maximum size of the fish they're allowed to keep increased by three inches.

Some also want the stingy, one-fish daily bag limit bumped up to two fish.

But fisheries managers are worried.

Popular reds

The redfish is a glamour species, the darling of the inshore crowd.

The amount of time people spend fishing for reds is growing so swiftly that any easing of the rules could have a major impact.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has scheduled a discussion of the issue on May 26, during a three-day meeting in Pensacola.

Staff members of the commission's marine fisheries division say increasing the maximum size limit without increasing in the minimum size could cause problems.

On the east coast, long-term survival rates are averaging 67 percent, but on the west coast, the averages are just 20 percent. That is below the commission's goal of a statewide 30 percent survival rate.

"Some people are saying they are seeing a lot of large red drum and they'd like to harvest bigger fish," said Jorge Laguna. "They want us to raise the minimum size limit from 27 inches to 30 inches, so the slot would be 18 to 30 inches."

Such a move would impact the west-coast redfish populations more than those along the east coast.

"In terms of escapement, it wouldn't affect the Atlantic population, which has rates of more than 60 percent," Laguna said. "The Gulf, on the other hand, only has escapement rates of around 20 percent."

If the state were to adopt a slot limit of 18 to 30 inches, the survival rate on the east coast would only decline from 67 percent to 63 percent, still more than twice the goal.

But west coast rates would decrease from 20 percent to just 12 percent, he said.

One member of the fish and wildlife commission has proposed increasing the minimum size to 20 inches, to offset these declines, Laguna said.

That would result in a 16 percent survival rate on the west coast and 66 percent on the east coast, he said.

REGIONAL OPPOSITION

Most of the redfish harvest on the west coast occurs in the Big Bend and Panhandle regions, where residents traditionally have opposed attempts to limit recreational fishing.

As far as raising the one-fish limit, it could be accomplished on the east coast without altering other parts of the fishing rule, but not on the west coast.

Several years ago, the old Florida Marine Fisheries Commission actually proposed a two-fish limit but encountered opposition at public hearings and abandoned the idea.

If sentiments have changed, a larger limit can be adopted, with other changes.

"If they want to raise the bag limit, we have to go to closed seasons," Laguna said. "We could go to two fish on the east coast with no closures, but we'd need a three- or four-month closure on the west coast."